The Chessboard and the Naked Man

"Every time I sit down to write, I am a beginner... I sit down to write something that I do not know what it will be, and I write, specifically, to know what it is, what I am writing, and only I can write it, alone and no one else. That is why you sometimes see me spending whole hours, and days, searching for the right word and the formulation of a phrase. I do not want to repeat things that have been said, even if I am the one who said them, but unfortunately, this is what happens sometimes. That is why, when I write, I must forget what I have learned, and edit From malice, from the ideas they imposed on me, and finally from everything that could limit my freedom of expression.
I try every day to regain this state of purity... to be born again every morning... I do not claim that I can always do so, but I try... because I have just come into this world."
Fernando Sabino